Saturday 5th February 2012

What a difference a couple of weekends rest makes. Today I ran 23 hilly miles in the Surrey Hills which to be honest was a complete surprise. I’ve been injured recently and worried so to go out and pull off such a great run in challenging terrain is great.

The day worked out like this:

Because I’ve been injured I decided the best way to prevent any further injury was to avoid tarmac so I chose to cycle to the start of the trails (North Downs Way, Guildford). This is a 7 mile cycle ride each way which is no big thing because its flat.

As soon as I hit the trails I was joined by other ultra runners who were racing. Unknown to me there was a 66km ultra race along the North Downs that day. It was funny because I looked like I was in the race. The marshalls kept saying “well done mate, you’re doing good” – I just smiled and moved along.

Anyway, as I ascended St Martha’s Hill (accompanied by the racers) I took a diversion. My plan was to run up & down what is famously known round here as ‘The Crack’. It’s basically the steepest hill in the area and is impossible to run up, you need your hands to get yourself up its so steep – I did this 3 times before moving on.

So, after the lung busting ‘Crack’ session I headed along the North Downs Way towards Dorking. This gave me a chance to plug-in some music in and chill out for a while on the flat trail. I ran for 5 miles along the NDW before turning round. I took a little diversion both out & back to run up & down another hill I know in the area but other than that it was a chilled (minus 2 degrees) 10 miles with sounds & thoughts.

Then on the way back towards Guildford I decided to test the legs out and run up St Martha’s again. What was funny about this is that I came across 3 colleagues who were pushing their bikes up the same hill (to ride down it again). They all know that I’m running the TNF100 but none of them had ever seen me training before, their faces as I waved & ran past was hilarious!

Then it was a fast run down St Martha’s Hill before taking one of my favourite trails towards Pewley Down which takes you back into Guildford.